THE POLAR BEAR WHO LIVED IN CALIFORNIA

By Nicholas
December 10, 2008


Earl, the polar bear, was tired of looking at nothing but snow and ice. There was blank white snow as far as he could see.
“I’m tired of all of this snow,” Earl told his mother. “I’m going to where I can see something different.

“But you’re a polar bear,” said his mother.

It didn’t matter to Earl. He packed up his things and headed south from the North Pole until he realized that this would be a tough journey. He didn’t even know where to go exactly.

“Someplace warm,” he told himself. “Someplace opposite of snow,” His imagination was blooming with ideas of places he could go. “Asia, Africa, oh! I always wanted to visit North America!”

Not noticing that he was running faster and faster, nor that he was talking out loud to himself, he accidentally collided with his large, fluffy father.
“Whoa there son! Where are you going in such a hurry?” asked his father. He had a large, deep voice to go with his huge body.

“I’m going to explore the world!” Earl replied excitedly.

“Where exactly are you going?” asked his dad with an eyebrow raised.

“That’s what I’ve been trying to figure out. I’m not sure where to start.”

“Why not California?” Earl recognized this voice to be one of his father’s friends. It’s a nice place. It’s got grass. Earl’s eyes widened.
“Grass…” he repeated to himself. He looked back up at his father’s friend. “You mean they actually have it there?”
“Yep, they sure do,” replied his father “And sand too.”

Earl was so excited. He had never seen sand before, let alone grass. Since it was starting to get dark, Earl decided to leave in the morning. The next morning, after some delicious fish for breakfast (and an excellent little nap) he started heading south again. Just to get to America required (although seemingly impossible) sneaking onto an airplane. After finding a way to get up into the ceiling to quietly walk to another terminal in the airport; then tiptoeing through the cold Canada air to the luggage hold underneath the airplane, he was at last on the flight to California. Surprisingly, he made it without being seen. Earl went straight to the beach, sneaking through alleyways so that he wouldn’t be seen.

Once he got there, the sight amazed him greatly. He did, however, have to wait until evening when everyone left to finally roam the beach. He did this for very many months until he started to get lonely there. Soon though, to his great surprise, he saw his family members in a cage that was closed up except for several small air holes. The cage, though, seemed to be kept cold for them and was very roomy.

Staring at them out in the open apparently was not a good idea, as he felt a sharp pain in his bottom, started to get very dizzy, and toppled over. Several minutes later he woke up in that same cage with his family members. All six of them looked down at him.

“Is he awake yet?” he heard someone say. He opened his eyes to look at his mother standing right in front of him. She narrowed her eyes at him and took a step closer. Her eyes then at once broadened.

“Earl? Earl it is you!!” She exclaimed. All of the family members gathered around him closer and talked about how much they all missed him.
Earl learned that because of blizzard-like winter storms in the North Pole that year, they were rescued and taken back to the zoo. At night, Earl was (of course) able to figure out a way to temporarily leave the cage. He used this time at night to show them the beach and the sand. Then they would come back to their cage, lock the door, and go back to sleep before anyone would notice they were gone.

They did this happily for the rest of their lives. Earl, of all of them, was very proud to be the first polar bear to live in California.